Rodrigues and daughter in prison now

Question: Have Gary Rodrigues and his daughter started serving their jail sentences yet?

Answer: Yes.

Rodrigues, the former head of the United Public Workers union, and his daughter Robin Sabatini began serving their prison terms on Jan. 7, Assistant U.S. Attorney Florence Nakakuni told us yesterday.

Rodrigues is serving his 64-month sentence in Taft Correctional Institution in Taft, Calif., while Sabatini is serving her 48-month sentence in the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, Calif.

Rodrigues was convicted in 2003 of mail fraud, money laundering and embezzlement related to the union, while Sabatini was convicted of mail fraud and money laundering. Rodrigues also has to serve three years on supervised release after he gets out of prison.

Last October, U.S. District Judge David Ezra reaffirmed the sentences he handed down in October 2003 and ordered that they both report to prison on Jan. 7.

Rodrigues' attorney had filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court challenging the validity of the conviction, but that challenge was denied last week, Nakakuni said.

Auwe

To Oahu Transit Services and TheBus for discontinuing the B Express stop at Kalakaua Avenue and Olohana Street without posting any advance notice. I got on the bus one Friday with a load of groceries and ended up getting off down near the Cheesecake Factory. I asked the driver what happened to the express stop, and he said, "They moved it," indicating the stop we were at. (That is not correct; that stop has been there all along, so it would be an elimination, not a move.) I had to walk two blocks over to Kuhio, then another block to a bus stop and wait to take a bus back in the other direction to get off near where I live. I feel sorry for any seniors who were rudely surprised by the deletion of that stop. -- Jane

There obviously was some miscommunication.

The stop at Kalakaua Avenue and Olohana Street has not been moved or discontinued.

"We are so sorry to hear that this bus rider had some difficulty getting home," said Michelle Kennedy, spokeswoman for Oahu Transit Services.

When you got off at the Cheesecake Factory/Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center and the bus driver said the current stop had been moved, "That statement is true," she said.

During renovations at the shopping center, that stop was moved a few yards; the driver was not referring to the Kalakaua/Olohana stop.

"The Kalakaua/Olohana bus stop is still valid, and the bus would have had an interior announcement when the bus got near the stop," Kennedy said.

However, unless a rider pulls the stop cord or there are people waiting to board at a stop, the bus will continue on, she said.

If you didn't pull the stop cord, "that may be the reason the driver did not stop at that location," she said.